February 2009

Marooned in the depths of darkness, battered by storms, cold and tired, ready for change. Does that sound like a metaphor for the economy? Maybe it's just the weather. Either way, what we need this week is a double dip of warmth and soul to chase away
the winter blues.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we banish those indigo,cerulean and cobalt feelings...with a program called HAVEN. Music is by DAVID ARKENSTONE, LUDOVICO EINAUDI, TIM STORY, OYSTEIN SEVAG, LISA LYNNE & GEORGE TORTORELLI, and introducing FIONA JOY HAWKINS.

The ancient practice of harmonic overtone singing has come down through ages — sometimes as occult knowledge, sometimes in the mainstream of an exotic culture, sometimes in avant-garde experimentation — but always possessed of a quiet secret.

Hidden within the human voice and the resonant cavities of the body is the ability to produce multiple harmonic tones; and within this, the possibility of spiritual absorption in a subtle realm of ethereal sound. When recirculated on themselves in a reverberant sanctuary, voices and their overtones take on a psychic power that approaches magic.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space we revisit the ghostly realm of harmonic singing on a journey called TONES and OVERTONES. Music is by BAIRD HERSEY and PRANA, JIM COLE and SPECTRAL VOICES, STEVE ROACH, MARK SEELIG and BYRON METCALF, ALPHA WAVE MOVMENT, KEVIN KELLER, DEAN DE BENEDICTUS, IGNEOUS FLAME and ACHROMUS, and AL GROMER KHAN.

A number of repeat visitors have asked us this question. It was working fine for them, why change it?

We started our web service in 2001 with 100 programs and Real Audio as the streaming format and the media player. Today this format is all but abandoned online.

We launched our Windows Media Audio service in 2004 when WMA was the leading format, because it was compatible with the vast majority of Windows machines out there and many Windows users had, umm, issues with Real Audio. But by 2007 we were spending hours every day trying to support Mac and Linux users as well as many Windows users who had serious technical problems with Windows Media — an unsustainable burden for a small company like HOS and an imposition on our users.

Today, Windows Media Player has been abandoned even by Microsoft, in favor of their new Silverlight format, which is largely a response to the enormous popularity of Flash on sites like MySpace and YouTube, and the fact that — after you download a tiny browser plug-in — Flash just works on all the major operating system and browser combinations.

This is what has driven us to move to Flash, not a perverse desire to keep up with technical fads and fashions. Not only that, it allows us to deliver a far better sounding and more feature-rich and fun-to-use experience to listeners (see the full list of new features below) a fact that weighs in our favor when users decide whether it is worth paying our modest fees for the full service.

The web is not a static environment. It changes in small and large ways all the time, and like it or not, we are all obliged to move along with it. I guarantee that you will not be using the same computer and software five years from now that you are using today. In fact, you may be using your 'smart' cell phone for many of the things you use your computer for today, including listening to Hearts of Space.

So please take your time getting used to the new service — you'll find it's a big step forward. If you're having any difficulties during the transition, please contact us at help@hos.com and give us the details of the problem. We're here to make the change as smooth and effortless as possible for you.

Winter...blankets the landscape with a leaden, contractive force, relieved by intense contrasts. Defying the cold and dark, the primordial hearth casts a soothing glow; the brilliant sun of day and bright stars of the winter night contrast with the ashen tones of a natural world in hibernation...while in the winter soundscape, somber bass drones and dense atmospheres are relieved by crystalline accents.

After over a year in development (we're still learning about software design projects) and six weeks of beta testing by about 40 of our more adventurous users, we launched version 3 of the HOS Archive service today at 11:05AM.

We sent emails to every subscriber to alert them to the coming changes and did everything we could think of to make it a smooth transition. User IDs and passwords were carried over from the old Windows Media service. Personal Favorites lists were also transferred from the old site, but this process was less than perfect.

Some people couldn't find the Favorites menu button at first. Others found they were not completely up to date when they opened the "My Favorites" playlist in the new player. Rest assured, dear space fans: all of your favorites are still in our database and we will get all of them where they are supposed to be shortly. When the smoke clears, you'll find the new favorites display page much improved because it shows programs, albums, and tracks in one place.

A few users with unusally small screens on "netbook" size computers discovered a problem with that our beta test did not uncover: it's hard to see the lower part of the site because the top part with the larger Flash player and menu bars does not scroll up and out of the way. There are advantages to having the player stay put, but not when you have a 600 pixel high screen! We are working on a fix for this and will push it out ASAP.

We fielded several hundred emails and phone calls from users with other questions, but considering the scope and number of changes (we call them "improvements") everything went very smoothly and space fans on several continents are now happily listening to our crispy new 128kbps streams.

Please don't hesitate to email us at help@hos.com if you have any questions about the new site.

In the waning days of winter, change comes creeping across the landscape. The northern latitudes remain frozen in tones of gray, white and brown. Farther south, the first
glints of spring are still a subtle presence. We float...in a zone of incremental transition, unmoored and vulnerable.

It's a time of regression...and release...from winter's static grip, a time for subtle, slow-moving electronic music — built on icy tones, images of desaturated vistas, and latent promise.

On this transmission of Hearts of Space, a transitional electronic journey for winter called TERRA STATICA. Music is by ALPHA WAVE MOVEMENT, RUDY ADRIAN, MAX CORBACHO, and featuring world ambient veteran DAVID PARSONS.

Please note that this playlist applies to the Windows Media service only. On our new Flash™ service we have automated the selection of radio channel programs via a custom algorithm. [To try the new service now, go to beta.hos.com]